Gallium nitride has not been widely used for light-emitting diodes because a light-emitting diode having a gallium nitride element has various disadvantages. Namely, in a known gallium nitride light-emitting diode which was experimentally manufactured, an electrode has to be connected to the side of a light-emitting diode chip made of gallium nitride, and this electrode has to be connected via a connecting wire to an external terminal in order to apply a necessary voltage across the light-emitting diode chip. However, it is very difficult and troublesome to connect such an electrode to the side of a light-emitting diode chip and to connect the electrode via a connecting wire to an external terminal.
Moreover, when a diode wafer is cut into a number of small diode chips, stress is applied to single crystal constituting the gallium nitride layers. As a result, a number of cracks are apt to be made in the single crystal lowering the yield in manufacturing. Therefore, such a known gallium nitride light-emitting diode as well as the manufacturing method of the same is not suitable for mass production.